


Wild, It Could Be

by wrightaway



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Angst, DAN AND PHIL - Freeform, Dan Howell - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Phandom - Freeform, Phil Lester - Freeform, Survival, Wilderness, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-05-31 08:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6463042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrightaway/pseuds/wrightaway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan and Phil are both at a week long wilderness survival camp, and are paired up for a two night backpacking trip. Unfortunately, things get off to a rather rough start, but when the two of them get lost from the group, they're forced to rely on each other to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

_~~Hey mom, camp is utter crap~~ Hi mom, camp is great! ~~I don't have a lot of friends but~~ I'm really enjoying being independent and ~~eating all this disgusting food~~ trying these new dishes! ~~I can't believe you left me here for seven whole days while you went on vacation~~ I hope you are having a great time in Sweden! ~~Please end my suffering~~ I can't wait to see you at the end of the week! _

_With love, Phil_

Phil glances over his letter, making sure the crossed off sentences are entirely unreadable. He doesn't want his mom to worry about him, but writing out how he really felt was satisfying, even if she would never see it.

The wilderness, Phil decides, is very interesting, but what interests him is the lack of people, and this camp takes the magic out of that. When his mom showed him the ad for the first time, he got excited. But when he got to camp, he had an epiphany that there would be other people there.

"Oh, Phil you'll be fine, I'm sure you'll make lots of friends," his mom had said when she was leaving.

Five days had passed, and while Phil made plenty of animal friends, he had yet to hold an actual conversation with another person his age. Still, he had one last hope: the end-of-trip overnight backpacking trip. He would be assigned a partner, and, with any luck, they might become friends.

Only one question remained: who would his partner be?

~~~

The morning bell rings at the ungodly hour of six am, and Phil raises from his bed, struggling against the warm embrace of his blue and green comforter. Not wanting to be late, he runs into the bathroom, quickly running his toothbrush over his teeth, and marveling at his quiff. He does his best to control his hair, then rushes from his cabin to see the fated list.

This list would decide everything. It was the pairings for the backpacking trip, and Phil was hoping against hope he would get a good partner.

He arrived at the head cabin to find the group of boys surrounding a post.

 _This is it_ , Phil thinks, shimmying between people to catch a glimpse. It takes him a while to find his name, written in blue ink at the bottom of the page. There, across from his name, was his partner.

Daniel Howell

* * *

  _Dear parental units,_

_SOS_

_Sincerely, Dan-Howell-who-is-very-pissed-at-you-for-leaving-me-here_

* * *

 “Dumbass,” Dan hears, right before he’s pushed to the ground. He lands in a mud puddle, brought on by last night’s showers, and completely soaks his shirt.

“Fuck,” he whispers, scolding himself for not paying more attention. He knew those boys were after him, they had been since he rubbed their toilet paper with poison ivy, but hey, they had been asking for it, picking on that dark-haired kid.

He walks to main cabin, head down to avoid any more confrontations. Dan doesn’t particularly care who get gets as a partner, but it would be nice to get someone who wasn’t a total asshole.

The list is up by the time he gets there, a swarm of teenage boys circling it. Dan waits for a few minutes, hoping the numbers will die down, but eventually winds through the crowd to find the list.

“Phil Lester,” he read, the name across from his.

_Who the bloody hell is Phil Lester?_

Dan turns, and sees that most of the partners had already paired up. Only one boy remained, standing alone, a sad smile on his face.

That’s the kid.

He’s the one who started everything. The one who caused Dan to retaliate against the group of boys, ultimately getting Dan’s shirt completely soaked.

Why did he have to talk to a fucking squirrel? Why on earth would he think that would a good idea? The minute that group of boys heard him, it was all over. Nothing but good ol’ fashioned headlocks and noogies for him.

And now Dan was paired with this asshole who got him on those boys’ bad side for three entire days. Three. Entire. Days. _Three. Entire. Days._ He’d rather starve to death than spend that much time with this oddball.

But, apparently, he has no choice. The boy has spotted him, and is walking his way.

Dan takes a deep breath, and tries not to roll his eyes. The boy is dressed like the ultimate plonker, mismatched socks, baggy jeans, and far too many layers for an easy hike in the woods. His bag is near bursting, clearly this guy isn’t familiar with the idea of sizing down. From the looks of what he’s packed, he thinks they’re going on a four week vacation in Norway.

 _Oh god, he’s almost here. Quick, paste on a smile._ Though Dan has absolutely no desire to be this guys friend, he doesn’t want to have a miserable time with him.

“Hi! You must be Dan!” the guy says, a huge smile on his face.

“Uh, yep that’s me. And you’re Phil, right?” Dan says, making an effort to be civil.

“Yeah! Cool jacket! It reminds me of what a dementor would wear!”

Dan looks down at his black coat, sighing. This is going to be a long three days.

* * *

 It’s been one full day on the trail, and Phil feels like he’s really starting to get through to Dan. Sure, he still hasn’t responding with anything more than a ten word comment, and yeah, maybe he slept as far away from Phil as possible in the small tent, but at least he hasn’t hit him, like the other boys. That’s gotta mean something, right?

 _He’s probably just missing his family_ , Phil reasons, as he is as well.

They’ve stayed mostly to themselves on this hike, always trailing at the back of the group. Phil’s tried a few times to start up a conversation, but while Dan was never outright rude, Phil could tell he wasn’t in the mood for talking.

“Hey, Dan, do you play any sports?” Phil had asked, trying to get a conversation started.

“Do video games count?” Dan had answered, then sped up to be in front of Phil, leaving Phil to wonder if he should continue the conversation. He had chosen not to.

_Four words._

Now Phil just sticks to staying silent, he doesn’t want to come off as annoying.

They’ve been hiking for over an hour on the second day when they turn a corner to see a log  bridge over a river.

There’s no form of railing on the sides, no safety measures at all. Maybe that’s what nature camp is all about, but Phil finds it rather ridiculous.

“Oh gosh,” Phil utters, breaking his vow of silence. Dan turns his head a quarter of the way to him, his eyes half closed.

“What?” He asks in a bored tone.

“I can’t walk across that!” Phil panics, looking for another way around.

“Sure you can,” Dan says with a sigh. “Now come on, we’re falling behind.”

 _Nine words. That’s almost a record_.

Taking a deep breath, Phil falls in behind Dan, headed towards the makeshift bridge. The rest of the group is already across the river, headed around another bend. They’re a good ways behind, and Dan picks up the pace to catch up.

Dan jumps up onto the log, walking across it quickly. Not wanting to get left behind, Phil matches Dan’s pace, staying directly behind him.

Bad idea.

Phil can tell before he even places his foot that something’s wrong. His foot slides down the rounded slope of the log, pulling the rest of his body with him. He instinctively reaches out for something to grab on to, his hands finding only Dan’s backpack.

 _Oh no,_ Phil thinks, sensing what’s going to happen next.

Dan, unprepared for the sudden jerk, falls sideways as well, leaving the two boys with nothing to keep them from falling into the cold river water.

“Fuck!” Phil hears, before his head is submerged in the murky liquid.

The current isn’t too strong, and Phil, a decent swimmer, rises to the surface quite easily. His head bobs above water as he searches for Dan, waiting for him to resurface. When nothing appears, Phil begins to panic.

He swims downstream, feeling blindly for anything that might be Dan. Upon feeling nothing, he ducks his head under, forcing his eyes to open. Through blurry vision, he sees a shape a few meters away, being pulled along just under the surface.

Phil kicks quickly, moving towards the shape faster than the current can carry it. He gets closer, and is relieved to see it _is_ Dan.

 _Thank god_ , he thinks, ducking down to help bring Dan to the surface. He manages, though the weight is a lot for him to handle, and slowly begins kicking towards shore.

Dan starts coughing just as they reach the water’s edge, and begins talking right when they arrive on dry land.

“You absolute fucking prick!” Dan yells. “What were you thinking, pulling me into the water?! I almost drowned!”

_Sixteen words. Really pushing the limit, Philly._

“Dan! I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to, I swear! I’m just super clumsy and-”

“Save it,” Dan snaps. “I’m going home.”

“Wait!”

This is not what Phil was prepared for. He was expecting to be yelled at for a few minutes, then given the silent treatment for the remainder of the trip. But for Dan to just go off on his own… this isn’t like any outcome Phil had considered.

“You could get seriously hurt going out on your own! I won’t let you!”

“Oh yeah? Try and stop me, asshole.”

_Seven. Back down to single digits again._

Without another word, Dan heads back, roughly in the direction they came, though now there is no path to follow. Phil panics, trying to think quickly. Dan can’t go out on his own, it’s far too dangerous. Plus, Phil would be seriously punished for getting them into this mess! They might even disown him from the troop - hey, that might actually not be that bad…

 _No_ , he tells himself. _You’ve got to think of Dan_.

And so, with no other option seemingly available, Phil heads into the forest as well, running to catch up with Dan.

When he reaches him, Dan acknowledges him with a sigh, but doesn’t turn him away.

 _Maybe he was hoping you’d follow him_ , Phil pounders, but reminds himself that’s probably not true.

They walk on for what feels like hours, Phil blindly following Dan. He walks quickly with a strong sense of confidence, he must know the way back. The day gets warmer as they walk, the sun drying their clothes to a certain extent.

It’s just when Phil thinks they should be nearing camp that Dan turns around, speaking to him for the first time in hours, a worried expression on his face. 

“Hey, uhhh, I may have… gotten us completely fucking lost.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and Phil begin their quest to be found, though it gets off to a rather rough start. Just a warning, Dan has a panic attack pretty early on, so if that would hurt you in any way, please feel free to skip ahead. Stay safe friends!

_Ohhhh boy, ohhhh boy, ohhhh boy, I fucked up._

In his defence, Dan had thought they were going in the right direction. He was 98% sure he wasn’t leading them completely astray.

Dan had thought he was good in the wilderness. He’d studied it by himself, through books and shows, though he had never practiced it. He knew what kind of plants to eat and which ones to avoid, he knew several ways to start a fire, he knew how to purify water, but now, in the heat of the moment, he has no fucking clue how to get home.

_How the fuck will I tell Phil?_ Dan wonders. _He’s going to be so mad. Well, I guess that’s what he gets for following me._

Dan turns around, deciding it would be best to break the news sooner rather than later.

“Hey, uhhh, I may have… gotten us completely fucking lost.”

Phil looks up at him, his eyebrows creased.

“Lost?” he squeaks, fear evident in his voice.

“Yeah. We’ve crashed the plane and now we’re completely fucking screwed.”

Dan takes a deep, shaky breath, looking around helplessly.

The sky is darkening, the trees beginning to cast shadows on the ground. The sight makes Dan’s throat close up, his eyes dilated in fear.

Tress. Dark. Lost.

Lost in trees in dark.

Dark and trees and lost.

Dan’s breathing quickens, this is everything he fears combined into one.

_Don’t panic. Don’t make a fool of yourself in front of Phil_ , he briefly thinks, but that only makes the panic worse.

“Dan? Are you okay? Dan?”

Phil’s voice is sharp, and through the haze of fear and panic, Dan worries for him. He’s probably really freaked out, but, quite frankly, Dan can’t afford to worry about him right this moment.

He’s struggling to breath properly now, half bent over, his stomach jerking in a fashion near retching.

_It’sallyourfaultyoudidthistoyourself. Yourfault. Yourfault. Yourfault._

Dan sinks to the floor, too preoccupied to continue standing.

He had almost forgotten Phil was still there, until he speaks up.

“Hey Dan? I’m going to sit next to you, okay? I don’t want to surprise you.”

Dan hears Phil’s voice, and is able to more or less understand what Phil is doing. He can sense motion beside him, and is glad Phil didn’t just appear there without warning.

“Dan, try to breath with me, okay? 1-2-3 breath, 1-2-3 breath, 1-2-3 breath…”

Dan tries his best to match Phil’s monotonous pace. Phil’s voice is calming, and the repetition is nice. Slowly, ever so slowly, his breathing begins to match Phil’s.

“It’s gonna be okay, Dan. You’re going to be fine.”

It takes upwards of ten minutes for Dan to fully recover, but Phil doesn’t leave his side. When Dan finally feels strong enough to stand, Phil offers him a hand up.

Dan doesn’t take it.

“I’m fine,” he chokes out. “Just… don’t like trees.”

“Oh, okay.”

They sit there for a while as the last notes of Dan’s panic fades. Dan can feel Phil’s shoulder pressed up against his, and a small wave of relief passes through him, knowing he’s not alone. He’s still super fucking mad at Phil, but it would be hell to deal with this on his own.

“So,” Phil starts awkwardly. “Trees? What are you afraid of, Slenderman?”

“Oh great, Phil, yeah, remind me of all the scary creatures out there. Thanks.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s an interesting thing to be afraid of.”

Dan thinks about it for a little while, trying to come up with a viable answer.

“I guess I’m afraid of trees because you never know what they could be hiding. If you look out into a canyon, you can see everything, but in a forest, you never know what’s just ten meters ahead. I’m afraid of uncertainty, I suppose.”

After he finishes with his brief speech, Dan remembers that he’s still supposed to be mad at Phil.

“Besides, I bet you’re afraid of a lot stupider shit,” he says, trying to backtrack.

To his surprise, Phil laughs.

“Yeah, probably. I’m afraid of horses. And cheese.”

Dan laughs before he can stop himself.

“Cheese? What the fuck mate? Cheese is the best.”

“I like it on pizza! Just no where else.”

“I officially hate you.”

Dan’s torn between staying angry at Phil and trying to forgive him. True, it was all Phil’s fault that they got stuck out here, and it was Phil who got Dan on the bad side of those boys, but it was also Phil who followed him into the forest, and who helped him calm down not minutes ago.

Maybe he’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

* * *

When Dan’s breathing had quickened and he sank to the ground, Phil had no idea what to do.

Phil was already scared, having just been told he was hopelessly lost, but seeing his only company out here freak out made it so much worse.

Up until this point he had absolutely trusted Dan, sure he would get them back to the base in no time. But then Dan was on the ground, his breathing coming in short, desperate gasps, and Phil was shoved into the driver’s seat.

_Think_ , he commands, wracking his head to figure out what to do. He’s almost certain Dan’s having some form of panic attack, probably from the realization that they are, in fact, truly lost.

Phil tries desperately to remember something, _anything_ , he may have read about helping someone with a panic attack. Something about short sentences, maybe, and not surprising them?

Speaking in his softest tone, Phil tells Dan he’s going to sit down beside him. Thinking the best thing to do would be to help Dan’s breathing return to normal, he asks him to breath with him, which more or less seems to work.

Once Dan’s breathing finally returns to normal, they begin talking. Phil finds out Dan is afraid of trees, and his comment about canyons helps Phil start to think of a plan.

Phil pulls a torch from the contents of his bag, the natural light fading quickly. He directs the beam up to find a steep slope to their right. Gathering his courage, he announces he’ll lead for a while. Dan agrees.

They walk upwards for a while, Dan traipsing behind Phil, a change from before. Phil feels slightly unnerved leading, it’s something he rarely does, but continues to put one foot in front of the other.

“Jeez, Phil, out of all the ways you could have chosen, you had to go up? I know I signed up for a wilderness camp, but I’m about as fit as Winnie the Pooh after eating his entire honey stash.”

_Wow. That was a lot of words. Almost too many to count._

“Yeah, well I’m about as fit as a bear after hibernation, but we’ve got to go up. Do you trust me?”

“Do I trust you? What is this, Aladdin?”

Phil giggles. “I can show you the world-” he begins singing, but cuts off when he  trips over a branch. He scrambles to his feet, but not before Dan sees, and laughs a little, with him, Phil hopes.

“I’ll pass, thanks. I wouldn’t want to fall off the magic carpet, now _that_ really would be a whole new world.”

“Probably much warmer,” Phil throws in.

“Are you implying I’d go to hell if I fell of the carpet?”

“No, no, I was just jo-”

“No, you’re right, I absolutely would.”

Phil snorts in disbelief. “And why’s that, Dan?”

“Because-” Dan begins. “Nevermind. I don’t know.”

“Alright then.”

By now, the only light is emanating from Phil’s flashlight, the sun off to warm a new host. The temperature has dipped considerably, and Phil just wants to settle in for the night.

That’s another problem - how are they going to sleep? It’s far too dark to set up a tent now, but the chilling forest air is making Phil shiver, even under his layers of clothing. Poor Dan must be freezing, though he isn’t showing it. Phil makes a mental note to offer him an extra jacket when they finally settle in.

Phil guesses they’ll just have to make do with their thin sleeping bags and whatever extra layers Phil has. They’ll need to collect a bit of bedding so they’re not directly on the forest floor, but that won’t take too long, there’s plenty of fallen branches around here.

Lost in thought, Phil walks on, but stops when he sees a change in the light from his torch. The circle produced from the torch is cut in half by the ground, only the closer semi-circle visible.

A warning is just raising to his throat when he hears a cry from next to him.

“Dan!” Phil screams, sheer panic coursing through them.

Phil had fulfilled his plan - to get them up high - but had neglected to think of what would happen when they got up there. Of _course_ there would be a cliff. Of _course_ they wouldn’t be able to see the edge. Of _course_ one of them could slip.

Acting quickly, Phil swings his torch in the direction of Dan’s screech, and finds Dan, one leg over the ledge, his other limbs scrabbling to keep him on solid ground. Dropping the torch, Phil lunges forward, grabs Dan’s forearm, and pulls him back up, panting heavily.

“Ohmygod,” he pants, his heart beating rapidly. “That was so scary!”

“You thought _that_ was scary?! Try being the one hanging over the edge!” Dan yells, and Phil can just feel Dan’s eyes on him angrily.

“Hey,” Phil tries for a joke. “At least I caught you. It’s sort of payback for before.”

“You wouldn’t have had to catch me if you hadn’t led us up here!” Dan yells, though when he speaks again, his voice is softer. “Why did you lead us up here?”

Flustered, Phil tries his best to articulate. “I just… you were… up here… there’s no trees… I wanted to help.”

“Oh. Um, thank you, then.”

Phil can hear the pain in Dan’s voice, and decides it would be best to turn in for the night, they’ve been through enough today. Phil picks up the torch, and roots through his backpack for some extra layers.

He finds a dorky space coat, and passes it over to Dan.

“You should put on some more layers,” he advises, and Dan accepts without a fight.

_He’s probably super tired_ , Phil thinks, holding back a yawn himself.

Phil quickly gathers a few bows from trees, telling Dan to stay put since he doesn’t have a torch himself. He places them in a rectangle, about two by three meters, big enough for both of them to share.

“Dan? Hey Dan?” Phil shines his torch around, briefly worried when Dan doesn’t immediately respond. His beam finds him, standing near the edge, as he looks out into the abyss.

“I almost just died,” Phil can hear Dan utter, and the sheer awe and fear in his voice makes Phil want to cry. If Dan had died because of him… Phil wasn’t sure if he’d be able to forgive himself.

“C’mon, Dan, we should get some rest.”

Phil pulls his and Dan’s sleeping bag from his bag (he had offered to carry Dan’s as well because he sure as shit had the space), and lays them out on the makeshift bed. They both crawl into the bags, Phil first, then Dan, and look up at the stars.

“Thank you for following me,” Dan says softly. “I don’t know what I would have done without you there.”

“Thank you for letting me come. It was my fault, anyways.”

“It’s fine. No hard feelings. Goodnight, Phil.”

“Goodnight, Dan.”

They fall asleep without another word.

* * *

When Dan wakes to the first morning rays of sun, he has to remind himself of exactly where he is. The reminder jolts him awake, and he sits straight up, only to see a view he had never expected.

He carefully extricates himself from his sleeping bag so as not to wake Phil, and walks forward to the ledge he so nearly fell over, taking a seat over the drop-off.

Before him is a sunrise to the likes of which he has never seen before. The hills, lush and covered in foliage, are bathed in an almost golden glow, with the sun just peaking up from where two meet.

The sky is painted by a thriving artist, the colours so vivid, it’s hard to believe they’re real, reds and oranges and pinks blending together to form a near perfect picture.

From where Dan sits, it seems nothing could go poorly again. In a world this beautiful, what could go wrong?

Maybe, just maybe, he and Phil will make it back just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Argh, man writers block is rough. If y'all have any suggestions for the fic, please let me know, they always make it 100x easier to plan ahead!
> 
> Anyways, what are you thinking so far? Not a lot of survival yet, since they're just on the first day, but it'll come. If any of y'all are also nature nerds, feel free to message me at creatinghope.tumblr.com and we can geek out together :)
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! It's me, your local nature nerd. I've been writing phanfic for a little while, and decided to try something I've always been interested in - wilderness survival! 
> 
> My other phanfic, Creating Hope, is still in production, and will remain my main focus for the time being, but I'll try to update this one as frequently as possible.
> 
> Anyways, what did you think? Did Phil make the right choice following Dan? It's interesting writing mostly from Phil's POV, very different from my other story, but I'm really liking it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
